Effects of School Gardens on Children's Diet, Nutritional Knowledge, Etc.

Cornell University3,531 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to determine whether school gardens influence children's dietary intake, nutritional knowledge, and other outcomes.

Schools in New York, Washington State, Iowa, and Arkansas were randomly assigned to receive school gardens and associated curriculum or to serve on the wait list control group that received gardens and curriculum at the end of the 2-year study. Baseline data were collected in Fall 2011. Garden interventions began in Spring 2012. Follow-up data were collected at 6, 12, 18 months following baseline data collection.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

3,531

Conditions

Dietary Habits

Interventions

garden interventionBEHAVIORAL

The intervention includes raised bed garden kits for participating classes as well as access to garden-based curriculum.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 6 YearsMax age: 14 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Schools had at least 50% of enrolled children qualifying for free + reduced price meals (FRPM) * Schools did not already have a school garden. Exclusion Criteria: none.

Locations (4)

Schools in Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

Schools in Iowa

Osceola, Iowa, United States

Schools in New York State

Ithaca, New York, United States

Schools in Washington State

Tacoma, Washington, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

change in fruit + vegetable intake at school

Children's lunch trays are photographed before and after lunch for 3 days at each wave of data collection. Digital Food Image Analysis software computes grams of fruit and grams of vegetables consumed for each pair of lunch tray photos.

Time frame: change from baseline to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months

Secondary Outcomes

Garden Intervention Fidelity

fruit + vegetables planted, harvested; methods of fruit and vegetable distribution; and garden-based lessons delivered to the class are measures at each wave of data collection from Fall 2011 to Spring 2013.

Time frame: At 3 garden intervention time points -- 6, 12, 18 months after baseline

change fruit & vegetable consumption at home

Time frame: change from baseline (Fall 2011) to follow-up at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months.

change in Nutritional Knowledge

In the classroom, children complete a 7-item multiple choice questionnaire developed by the Healthy Gardens, Healthy Youth curriculum development team. The questionnaire includes items about plant science (e.g., Which part of the plant uses the sun's energy to make food? root, stem, leaf, flower) and nutrition (e.g., Which nutrient supplies our bodies with energy? fiber, carbohydrates, water, vitamins). Data represent the number of correct answers.

Time frame: change from baseline to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months

change in Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) self efficacy

In the classroom, children complete a 15-item questionnaire, derived from the Science Process Skills Inventory (SPSI) (Arnold \& Bourdeau, 2009) and the Iowa 4-H Science Youth Self-Assessment (Staker, 2011). Items include, for example: "I can do an experiment to answer a question" and "I can develop a plan for a good garden I want to plant" with response options "Disagree." "Not Sure." or "Agree" denoted 1, 2, or 3 respectively. The STEM self-efficacy score range is thus 15-45, with higher scores indicating that participant has stronger positive beliefs in their abilities to use STEM to solve problems.

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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